Centre Ben Thomas is eagerly anticipating the chance to play against Racing 92 at La Défense Arena this weekend in the Investec Champions Cup.
Despite having lost their opening three games in the competition, the Blue and Blacks have shown plenty of endeavour and attacking intent.
They were narrowly defeated by Bath in a thrilling high-scoring game, and started quickly against Harlequins before eventually falling away.
Thomas believes that the team has performed well on the whole this season and isn’t far away from turning results in their favour if they tighten up their play around the interval.
“It’s quite easy to get up for a game like Racing and going to their stadium,” said Thomas.
“It's not something you tend to do very often. A lot of boys will play there once in a career, so it's quite an easy game to dust ourselves off for.
“It's probably either side of half time where we’ve given teams a few easy ins. Teams like Quins, Toulouse, those top teams, you can't really afford to just give them tries as we've done twice either side of half time.
“Then that's probably a 15-point swing, and then the game runs away from you, and it's easy for a team like that, once they get a bit of momentum, to put their foot on the throat.
“Coming out the back end of last season with everything that went on throughout the year, we probably expected to go through some dark times, but this year has been probably a lot better than everyone anticipated.
“We knew we'd be on the back of some tough results playing in the Champions Cup, because they're superstar teams, but it's been quite enjoyable for us, the way we've played, how we've stuck in games and barring probably two games, been in games right into the end.
“Playing attractive rugby is probably something a lot of teams talk about, but we put a massive emphasis on it throughout pre-season and it's nice to see the fruition of that.
“A lot of the results this year may not have gone our way but as long as we're putting good rugby out there, and it's enjoyable to watch and play in, then that's all we can really ask for.
“There's fine margins in games where we've gone wrong, but in terms of what we actually put on the pitch, we're not a million miles off it.”
Wales announced their 2024 Six Nations squad earlier this week, which saw the inclusion of 11 Cardiff players.
There were call ups for young trio Cam Winnett, Mackenzie Martin and Alex Mann in their first full seasons with the senior squad and Thomas says they are richly deserved after their performances for the Blue and Blacks this season.
“Cam (Winnett) has been amazing this year, probably everything you could want from your fullback,” added Thomas.
“He's been a rock under the high ball, he's been good in counter-attack, good in defence. His chat's been good and I'm buzzing for him. He's been outstanding this year, and it’ well deserved.
“There are probably boys that people who don't watch Cardiff may not have heard a lot about, but I think if you've watched them this year for us they've all been outstanding.
“I think Manny and Mackenzie in the back row, they came in pretty much playing very limited pro rugby before this season and they have both taken to it like a duck to water.
“Macca's physicality and his carries have got us on the front foot and got us out of a lot of trouble.
“The work that Manny gets through has been outstanding. There's no surprise to any of us in this building that those boys have been selected for the squad because they've been amazing since the start really.”